come in and cut himself out of my life the day after, shaking his head
and saying he couldn't think what the world was coming to. As near as I
could make him, his idea was that the world was going to be swamped with
young ones if something wasn't done about it, like using squirrel poison
or gopher traps.

I felt like I wanted to cuff him up to a peak and knock the peak off; but
I merely joked and said it was too bad his own folks hadn't come to think
that way while he could still be handled easy. I also warned him it was
going to be hard to find a job without more or less children on the
outskirts, because ours was a growing state. He said there must be a few
sane people left in the world. And, sure enough, he gets a job over to
the Mortimers'--Uncle Henry and Aunt Mollie being past seventy and having
nothing to distress Homer.

Of course the secret of this scoundrel's get-away from Idaho had got
round the valley, making him a marked man. It was seen that he was a born
flirt, but one who retained his native caution even at the most trying
moments. Here and there in the valley was a hard-working widow that the
right man could of consoled, and a few singles that would of listened to
reason if properly approached; and by them it was said that Homer was a
fiend for caution. He would act like one of them that simply won't take
no for an answer--up to a certain point. He would seem to be going fur
in merry banter, but never to words that the law could put any expensive
construction on. He would ride round to different ranches and mingle at
dances and picnics, and giggle and conduct himself like one doomed from
the cradle to be woman's prey--but that was all.

Funny how he'd escaped through the years, him having apparently the weak
and pliant nature that makes the ideal husband, and having reached the
time of life when he was putting sheep dip on his hair where the lining
shone through on top. But so it was. And his views on children had also
become widely known. Mothers used to grab up their youngest ones when
he'd go into the post office down at Kulanch or meet one on the road.
He made no hit at all with such views among them that had learned better.
Still there was hopeful ones that thought he might be made to take a joke
sooner or later, and the fact that he was known to save his wages and had
a nice little stake laid by didn't work against him any with such parties
as might have a chance to be swept off their feet by him